1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method for using a data processing device that includes a screen and a pointer device to adjust a hearing aid transmission characteristic defined by parameters specific to the hearing aid concerned.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Because of different manufacturers, the diversity of hearing aid types available, and the multiplicity of hearing aid parameters that can be changed by adjusting controls or by programming, such as frequency response (e.g. signal edge displacement, rise time in the low and high tone range), gain, starting point of AGC, peak clipping, etc. hearing aid acousticians are confronted with such a large number of different programming options that, solely from the point of view of the time involved, it is no longer worthwhile to go through all these options to arrive at an optimum adjustment. Moreover, a tedious adjustment process of this type would not be acceptable to users.
Automated adjustment methods thus have been proposed (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,112). Even in such cases, however, the hearing aid acoustic engineer is still confronted by a number of different setting options that have an effect on the acoustic behavior of the hearing aid.
From DE 44 18 203 C2 a method of using a personal computer to adjust the transmission characteristic of a hearing aid defined by device-specific parameters is known, in which a memory for basic values of a hearing aid setting, in conjunction with an algorithm and a data memory, supplies transmission characteristic of the hearing aid and displays this information as a graphics curve on the screen of a personal computer. A computer mouse with a pointer that can be positioned on the display is used as a pointer device for the adjustment process, so that points or sections of a graphics curve to be changed can be clicked on and moved, thereby changing the shape of the transmission curve. This process is repeated until, once the desired curve has been obtained, the parameters for the desired curved are transmitted by wire or by the remote control to the hearing aid.
Graphics user interfaces of known computer applications frequently provide a functionality referred to as “drag-and-drop”. In such cases an object in the graphics user interface is clicked on with the left button of a computer mouse, the button is then held down while the computer mouse drags this object to another location in the graphics user interface and the left mouse button is released again to drop the object, in which case the object is stored at this other location of the user interface and overwrites the original content of the user interface at this location. This allows complex data to be manipulated relatively quickly and easily.
The use of a clipboard for copying individual characters or character strings is known from the Microsoft Windows® operating system for personal computers. In such cases the characters to be copied are marked and stored in the clipboard by pressing keys on the computer keyboard or by using a computer mouse. The content of this clipboard can then be inserted later at selected locations of a graphics user interface.
A method for operation of a programming device for a hearing aid is known from DE 101 52 197 A1, in which parameters to control the signal processing in the hearing aid as well as characteristic and functions of the hearing aid are set using the programming device. This known method includes the following steps:
a) Activating recording means,
b) Executing an operating step at the programming device
c) Using the recording means to record the operating step and/or at least one absolute or relative parameter change brought about by the operating step,
d) Repeating steps b) and c) until an operating sequence is complete,
e) Deactivating the recording means,
f) Executing the operating steps recorded in steps in steps a) to e) and/or relative or absolute parameter changes brought about by the operating steps
EP 1 142 451 B1 discloses a method for binaural adjustment of transmission characteristics for a hearing aid composed of one part for the left ear and one part for the right ear, with the aid of a data processing system to which a pointer device and a display unit can be connected, with the pointer device being used to change parameters of the transmission characteristics and with the parameters of the one hearing aid part being able to be adjusted both independently of the parameters of the other hearing aid part and also simultaneously with the parameters of the other hearing aid part.